Very nearly done on the winter project Bass.....

November isn't out and the Winter project bass is all but done.

One buzzy fret to tidy, but other than that, she's ready.......

the Pickups arrived from the far east this morning......

Pretty high out put for a Jazz....  these weigh in at 12.5K & 14 K compared to the neck pickup that came out of it which was 6.5K.......

re attached to the original controls

then strings on, height adjusted and intonation set on the bridge.....

So, as I said earlier the A string buzzes on the 1st fret, so some sanding will solve that.

total outlay?  

including the bass, paint, decal, pickups and strings......

£80.

can't be bad for that!

Metallic spray painting a guitar with rattle cans

Metallic spray painting a guitar with rattle cans

OK just in case you have found this through google to see how to paint a guitar rather than following the full blog......

I bought this bass for pennies, as a winter project.

The body was broken and badly glued.  Too much hassle to break and re-glue it, so lots of filler and sanding.....

So, filled and sanded.....

On the advice of the guy in the motor factors, all paint is water based nowadays, so in his words, paint is paint.  No need to match brands.

One thing.  Paint is sensitive to humidity.  Spraying on a damp cloudy day runs the risk of cloudy finish.

So... several coats of primer.....  Better to do 4 light coats than one thick runny one.......  At this point I can see that the fill line is still visible.  If I was doing this as my job, yes, I'd go back at this point and sand some more.  but sod it, it'll do!

To avoid runs I'll do a few coats horizontally......

Then up on the kid's climbing frame.  Again, many thin coats better than one thick......

A few thin coats of clear coat......

Then once it dries, first assembly......

I'm still waiting for the new pick-ups to arrive, no I'll not be stringing it up yet.

Replacement Headstock Decal

OK, from day one, the frankly nasty Legend logo was going.

from that.....

a little wet and dry paper gives us....

the legend logo still visible........

then onto the PC and download a font called Strato ..... credit where it's due..... https://fontlibrary.org/en/font/strato

then load up Publisher and tinker around a little.....

then print onto clear waterslide decal paper.....

soak it for 30 seconds and slide it into place.....

Now, up close and personal, it's clear that this is not anything other than a fraud.  From a distance, people can believe what they want to!!

An hour in the sunshine sanding the body......

To be fair, sunshine is not vital for this, but a low angle of light DOES make it easier to see bumps and dips that still need work........

Pity about the glue line (that I stress, was there when I got the bass!), but the grain looks nice.... if it hadn't been for the glue line, I might have gone the whole hog and stripped it completely......

steel wool and lemon oil

This fingerboard looks like it's never been cleaned.

VERY icky..... so, 0000 grade steel wool to the rescue......

then a polish with lemon oil

now that's a LOT better....... frets are all shiny now too!

and the crack that needs filled, a quick scrape with a blade to make a decent groove to fill.....

then get it filled.....

once this is dry I'll flip it and fill the back, then it'll be time to get the sander out......

Winter Project; Jazz bass rebuild

OK, this was dirt cheap. 

for a reason!

Where the tape is tastefully wrapped around the body is a break...... which has been repaired quite badly.......  so there are gaps that will need to be filled.

 

and there are a few scuffs that you'd expect on a cheap old bass! 

On taking the scratchplate off, I discovered that the reason the bridge pickup wont work is because both wires are off.

Not the end of the world.

The neck is straight (but the fingerboard is really dirty) so this will really be 90% fill, sand and spray. before re-assembling.

So, on removing the neck I see MAY 98 which makes it 20 years old.  There is a very minor ding on the back of the neck, so it can be left alone.

The headstock and tuners are fine, apart from that Logo.

Now, I'm NOT going to try to pass it off as anything it isn't, but "Legend" has to go.

Two minutes with fine wet and dry sandpaper......

Legend is still just visible, but when I get my new waterslide decal made up it'll be a lot prettier.